Friday, February 3, 2012

Weekly Roundup: February 3, 2012

It's difficult to believe it's February already. It seems like only yesterday I revitalized this blog by transitioning it from being about writing to reading. I'm extremely pleased with the results.

It's been an interesting week for me. I finished and reviewed John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. I also listened to P. G. Wodehouse's Right Ho, Jeeves. Although I did thoroughly enjoy Right Ho, Jeeves, it didn't seem to have the momentum of the other Jeeves novels I've read. Even though I understand how funny it is to let Bertie screw things up only to force him to swallow his pride, I found myself getting antsy in parts and just wanting to get to the next thing. It was the third Jeeves novel I'd listened to in a rather short span and maybe that was a little too much for me. But, I soldiered through and, in the end, I really did like it.

When I finished Right Ho, Jeeves, I downloaded Veronica Roth's Divergent. I remember reading Grace's review of this book over at Feeding My Book Addiction and thinking it sounded interesting.

Imagine my surprise when it began calling to me, much like Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. I think it's been nagging me for a while, to be honest, in a "you really want to read me" type way. So I caved, bought it on Kindle, and tucked in.

I'm not finished with it yet. I'm about 70% through, but it gripped me from the opening pages and has never really let me go. I don't want to go into detail yet because I want to do the book justice in my review when I finish it. Suffice it to say that this book has a fierce young female protagonist who is a fish out of water in a dystopian version of Chicago.

The energy of the writing and the strengths (and weaknesses) of the characters combined with the obstacles they face is like holding lightning in the palm of your hand. If you like: strong female protagonists, dystopian literature, fish out of water stories, coming of age stories, or just a damn good read, get thee to a library or bookstore and check out Veronica Roth's Divergent. If that hasn't enticed you enough, my review of the full novel should be along in the next few days, but I suggest you take my word for it, or check out Grace's review (linked above).

I'd like to give you an idea of what's coming up on my reading list, but I'm so enthralled by Divergent that I can't think about other books right now. Perhaps Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks, maybe I will finally sit down and read Stephen R. Lawhead's Hood, though I'm really digging first-person narrators right now so I might continue in that vein and start The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Time will tell.

Are you reading Divergent yet? If not, what precisely are you waiting for?

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About Me

I'm a writer from Long Island, NY. I have my bachelor's from SUNY Potsdam in English Literature/Writing, have four and a half years' experience providing email technical support for a Flash-based web-hosting service and am now looking for work as a technical writer.